This invention relates to electrical connectors. Electrical connectors are widely used in telecommunications, computer networks, and other types of electronic systems. More particularly, the invention relates to electrical connectors, such as modular plugs, for use with crosstalk canceling jacks.
Crosstalk canceling jacks are used to minimize the total crosstalk produced in a plug-jack connection. These jacks minimize the total crosstalk in the connection by producing an equal but opposite crosstalk in the jack to that generated in the attached plug. The amount of crosstalk produced by the jack is based on estimated levels of crosstalk produced in compatible plugs and is fixed at the time the jack is manufactured.
For the jack to effectively minimize the total crosstalk, the crosstalk produced in the attached plug must be at the level for which the jack has been calibrated. In the prior art, this has been accomplished by precisely wiring the plug in conformance with plug wiring requirements. These requirements usually dictate plug wiring characteristics such as the arrangement of the signals at the plug's pins (pin-signal assignments), and the length and routing of the cable conductors in the plug's body.
An example of such a plug wiring requirement is modular plug specification TIA-568A which defines the wiring requirements for a four twisted-pair modular plug. This specification requires, inter alia, that the conductors of one twisted pair of the cable be connected to two non-adjacent plug pins. Under this requirement, these conductors must be carefully untwisted, fanned out, and routed to the pins by the assembler to maintain the calibrated level of crosstalk.
If the plug is inadvertently wired inconsistently with its precise and demanding wiring requirements, the level of crosstalk produced by the plug may be either too high or too low. For example, if two or more of the conductors are kept parallel and placed too close to each other over too long a distance within the plug, significant crosstalk may occur between them. When this crosstalk is combined with the crosstalk generated by the jack, the two may not cancel out, causing a degradation of the connection's overall transmission performance.
At the extremes, these degradations may result in the plug-jack connection failing its performance requirements. In the event of such a failure, the suspect cable assembly will have to be repaired or replaced, resulting in increased manufacturing costs.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an electrical connector which can be used to manufacture cable assemblies of consistent quality.
It is another object of this invention to provide an electrical connector which can be used to manufacture cable assemblies of consistent quality by simplifying the connector-cable assembly process.
It is still another object of this invention to provide an electrical connector which can be used to construct cable assemblies of consistent quality by including a mechanism for controlling the crosstalk produced in the connector without requiring precise wiring during assembly.